Interrupted Stand
by SEESWildCard
Summary: During Zack's stand against the Shinra army, an unexpected visitor arrives. And it brought friends.


**Disclaimer - I don't own Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts**

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**Desert Outside Midgar**

A massive army had gathered. Thousands, no, tens of thousands armed people aimed their weapons and unsheathed their swords at a single man standing in front of them.

The man had long, spiky, black hair, and a noticeable scar on his left cheek. His hands were holding a massive sword that was currently buried into a man's chest. This was Zack Fair. SOLDIER, First Class.

Behind him were thousands of bodies, some beginning to fade away in a green glow. Around him was a group of bloody bodies, his latest kills. Scattered across the wide field was countless shattered swords, bloody guns, cracked pauldrons and damaged helmets, the only remains of those that had been killed and faded.

Zack yanked his sword out of latest kill and charged at the army in front of him. The troopers opened fire, but Zack quickly maneuvered his weapons to block the rounds with the flat side of his blade. He then leaped toward the front line and in one quick slash, felled another six of his enemies.

He quickly turned to his side to cut down another five people, and then turned around to strike down an enemy who tried to slash him while his back was turned. He then leaped up and landed in the center of the mass of troopers, landing with an explosion that took out dozens of his foes.

The infantry men could no longer fire their firearms without hitting their own so they switched to their swords and begun to engage him in close quarters combat. Over twenty people armed with broadswords advanced towards Zack. he responded by activating his materia and sending three massive fireballs their way. The fireballs hit their mark, detonating upon impact. The resulting blast of flames killed over a dozen of them, but despite that even more troopers swiftly took their place.

Zack quickly used a " twister blade " move, quickly slashing in a 360 degree arc, cutting down the the closest eight of his enemies that were advancing toward him. Still, more quickly took the place of those he struck down. Zack then decided to end his current engagement quickly. He begun to rise from the ground, hearing the voice of his most constant enemy while rising. _" Show me the true power, of SOLDIER. "_ the voice of Genesis Rhapsodos said in Zack's head. Mind your own business " responded Zack in a quiet mumble, despite knowing it was just in his head.

As Zack reached a relatively high altitude, a massive crimson glyph appeared on the ground beneath him. His hand then began to glow with a green light. The troopers below him attempted to shoot him down, but all of their bullets impacted on a barrier surrounding Zack, disintegrating on impact. Then Zack raised his glowing hand, and the glyph below began to glow brighter. And then blasts of lightning started to emerge from it, killing dozens of Shinra infantrymen. And then the Glyph began to glow even brighter, and then detonated. The resulting explosion killed hundreds, almost a thousand of troopers, destroying them.

However, despite his mass killing, Zack still had tens of thousands foes to deal with. Zack then began to float down. When he landed he began to feel exhausting creep in. He was beginning to tire after hours of battle. His vision started to become blurry, his arms slackened, his grip on his sword loosened. Flashes of memories appeared before his eyes. Memories of friends, and comrades. And with renewed strength his vision became clearer, his grip tightened.

The army then opened fire again, but just as before, Zack blocked the rounds with the flat side of his blade. And soon the people firing at him eventually had to reload their guns, and in that short amount of time, Zack channeled a massive amount of energy into his sword, and in one might swing, sent it at the mass of infantrymen in front of him.

The blast of energy smashed into the group, killing dozens of them, and causing a shockwave that send even more flying.

Zack then took a sprint towards the enemy, blocking their bullets along the way. And when he was about 20 meters away from them, he suddenly leaped into the air. He then heard the voice of the person he fighting his current battle to protect. _" The power of SOLDIER "_ said the voice of Cloud Strife, in a tone that resembled awe. " Alright, here comes the big one! " Zack declared before making good of his statement by firing a blast of energy from his blade, and another, and another, until the ground before him was filled with craters, and dead bodies, or what was left of them anyways. And some of the helicopters that accompanied the army weren't spared. They plummeted to the ground in a twisted burning heap.

Zack then fell back onto the ground. He took note of the devastation he had caused. Where hundreds of men once stood, there was several craters, splattered with blood. A few limbs here and there, even a few heads were spread across the field. Once again he started to feel the exhaustion brought about by the battle. Once more, flashes of memories appeared before his eyes. He remembered his mentor, who had been like a second father to him, guiding him throughout his years in SOLDIER. He remembered the man Sephiroth once was, before the tragedy and nightmare that was Nibelheim. His strength renewed.

The Army decided to unload their big guns, becoming more desperate to finally take down the man who had been going through them like a bullet through butter. Their big guns happened to be an upgraded Guard Scorpion.

Zack saw the mech they were deploying, remembering it as the same one he had fought at Junon, only that it looked bulkier, and most likely had a few more tricks up it's, well whatever the equivalent for sleeves a Scorpion has. The Guard Scorpion opened fire. He easily dodged the shot's, only to find the mech firing missiles at him. Those too he dodged, but the explosion of the missiles managed to slightly graze his side.

The scorpion then fired it's laser, only for it to impact on a barrier projected by Zack. The laser eventually ran out of energy, and Zack finally began to strike back at the machine. Knowing that drawing out the fight wouldn't end well, Zack decided to go all out fast. He readied his blade to strike the machine, and he heard the voice of his fallen hero. _" Concentrate "_ said the voice of Sephiroth. Zack then leaped toward the machine and struck one of it's legs, then swiftly moved behind it to strike at another leg, and then moved to yet another to strike another, and then quickly struck it's last leg. However, he didn't stop there. After damaging all of it's legs, Zack quickly chopped of it's tail, before slicing of it's gun arms. And after thoroughly damaging it, Zack jumped into the air, and sliced down on the machine. The Guard Scorpion then split in half.y

And Zack turned to face the army, who were in shock at seeing one their most advanced weapons fall so easily.

And then it happened.

A small black creature with yellow eyes and small antennae rose up from the ground. For a while it just stood there staring at Zack. Then it turned it's attention toward the army. It lunge toward them, tackling down one of the soldiers. And it did something that shocked everybody observing; it pushed it's small fist into the man's chest. The downed man's allies opened fire on the strange creature upon seeing this. The creature fell to the ground with noticable holes in it's being. It then dissolved into a black puddle and disappeared.

And then a scream pierced the air, as in the center of their ranks, another of those strange creatures had appeared, and had tackled a man to the ground and had sunk it's small hand into his chest. The other troopers quickly aimed at the creature, only for a small swarm to tackle them onto the ground. This creatures too, plunged their hands into their victim's chest, and shortly after rips it out, bringing something with it. A glowing pink heart hovered above the hand of one of the creatures, before it crushed it into nothingness. The man who had once owned the heart then began to fade and dissolve. And others quickly followed his fate.

The army then turned their attention to the new arrivals who had quickly claimed the lives of several of their own. Then a new creature came. This one was, like the first completely black with the exception of it's bright yellow eyes. It was taller, and noticeably more bulkier, muscular, and instead of two short antennae, these creatures had two, long, and thick tentacles coming out it's head. It charged the infantrymen, who had their back turned to the creature due to having focused on the swarm of creatures that had emerged behind them.

It grabbed a man by the shoulders, and yanked him onto the ground. It quickly thrust it's hand into the guy's chest, and just as quickly yanked it out, now holding a glowing pink heart in it's hand and crushed it. The late man's comrades opened fire on the creature but it was noticeably more durable than it's smaller counter part. However, despite that it still fell to concentrated fire. Unfortunately for the army though, like it's smaller counterpart, even more of the strange creature emerged from the ground, releasing shock waves upon emerging, and swarmed the army.

A group of the new variant, about fifteen or so advanced toward Zack. He quickly swung the Buster Blade and cut six of them in half. Three of the remaining creatures lunged at him, he responded by chopping of their heads in one slash. Zack quickly finished of the remaining six creatures with a blast of fire.

" Nows my chance! " Thought Zack, deciding to take advantage of the fact that the army was currently in discord to attempt to get to Cloud and run.

He turned his back on the battle going on between the Shinra army and the strange new creatures, and ran toward where he had hidden Cloud. However, several of the odd beings split of from the mass that was engaging the army and gave chase. Zack swiftly noticed this and turned around to fire a quick blast of lightning at the small swarm that was actively chasing him. The blast caused some of them to be blasted back, while others dissolved. A few that hadn't been hit leapt toward Zack, but he simply struck them down.

He then resumed his sprint towards Cloud's location, but the creatures were relentless. They haven't given up their chase and they were growing in number. For every one Zack strikes down, two more emerged from the ground to take their place. " Damn these things are persistent! " Zack exclaimed, growing even more irritated by second. " Gotta get rid of them fast. " mumbled Zack to himself. He turned to the horde and began to activate one the strongest materia in his arsenal, Flare. He sent a relatively small fireball at the group chasing him, and despite it's small size when it impacted onto the group it created a massive explosion that managed to wipe out most of the group.

However a new variant of the strange beings came onto the field. This one was far more massive than the previous variants. It was massive, muscular, and humanoid. It possessed to small and twisted wings on it's back. And despite it's massive bulk, it's legs were in proportion small. But the most distinct feature of this new creature, was the massive heart shaped hole on it's abdomen.

It fired a blast of dark energy that came from the hole in it's abdomen at Zack. Zack raised his sword to absorb the brunt of the blast, and when it had passed, he fire a multitude of fireballs at the giant. Most them hit their mark, but that creature wasn't downed yet. It raised it's massive fist and dropped on Zack, or at least attempted to. Zack swiftly rolled out of the fist's way, which had buried itself into the ground. Zack took advantage of this and chopped of to vulnerable limb. The arm separated from the rest of the body, and quickly dissolved into the ground.

However the being still wasn't done fired another blast from it's chest. But this one, Zack too had quickly blocked. Zack leapt back to get away from the giants reach, and he sent of blast of energy of his own toward the creature. The blast hit it's mark, and beast fell to the ground. However, it still wasn't finished, and Zack sent another blast toward the beast which finally felled it. But from the small puddle of darkness left behind by the creature, several of the small variants appeared. Zack quickly dealt with them quickly, easily cutting them down in a single slash.

With his obstacles dealt with, Zack continued his way toward Cloud.

Continuing his dash toward his friend, Zack failed to notice four black images moving across the ground. The images then emerged from the ground in front of Zack, sending out shock waves that forced Zack back several steps, becoming the second variant.

Zack rushed toward them, sword in hand, and quickly cut one of the four in half before twisting around and delivering the same fate to a second one. He raised his weapon up, intending to bring it down on one of the creatures, but before he could, it sunk into the ground along with the other one, with the Buster Sword burying itself into the ground.

The two re-emerged behind Zack, unleashing shockwaves with their rise, which knocked Zack into the ground face-first. One of the two quickly pounced on Zack, intending to crush his heart. But shortly after it landed on Zack's back, Zack flips around and pins it to the ground, and quickly caves it's face in with a powerful punch. The other creature attempts to pounce on Zack, on for it to be punched into the ground and impaled by the Buster Sword, which Zack had retrieved from it's spot faster than anyone else could manage. With that dealt with, he continues his run toward his friend.

Howevefr when he arrived there he found one of the first variant that had a appeared with it's hand stuck in Cloud's chest. " No! " Zack yelled while quickly advancing toward the small creature before quickly lobbing it's head off. The head fell to the ground and dissolved while the rest of the body collapsed on Cloud and dissolved, the hand that was in his chest slipping out.

Zack rushed to his friend to check if the creature's act had harmed him in any way. Seeing that Cloud's condition had not changed, in that he was still in a coma, he lift him up, slung his limp arm around his neck, and brought him up to his feet. However, as he did this, more of the creatures erupted from the bround around them and made a lunge at them. Zack quickly lifted the Buster Sword with his free hand and cut them down before they could reach them. He quickly began to run to the general direction to Midgar, cutting down any of the creatures that had given chase.

However, another of the giants had erupted from the ground in front of them. It sent a blast of dark energy at them, but Zack intercepted it with a blast from his blade. " Get out of my way! " Zack yelled, before smashing his blade into the ground and sent a massive blast at the creature. The creature fell to it's knees and Zack finished it of by activating his materia and sending a flare it's way.

With his obstacle removed, Zack, still carrying Cloud, continued his way toward Midgar. A few more of the creatures appeared and attacked them, but he easily disposed of them.

" It's alright Cloud. We're almost there " Zack said to his comatose friend, attempting to reassure himself more than Cloud. However, when he reached a cliff overlooking the city of Midgar, he witnessed a sight that made him gasp in shock.

It appeared as though a sea of darkness was moving toward Midgar. But it was not simply a large dark mass. It was an army of the strange creatures that had suddenly arrived.

Zack could see them enter the city. He the creatures slowly fill the city. It was as if a flood of darkness was slowly consuming the city.

In the sky Zack saw some helicopters bearing the Shinra Electric Power Company logo attempting to leave the city. But some of them was suddenly entangled in a dark mass and crashed. Even from there Zack could faintly hear the screams of terror and chaos erupt from the city.

And as the city was being consumed, the sky slowly turned black. And streaks of lightning began to appear. Cracks appeared on the ground, and soon large ruptures appeared. And from those ruptures, a saw of darkness flooded out and began to cover the land in darkness.

Zack turned around and saw that ruptures were appearing in the ground behind them and a sea of darkness was heading their way. And suddenly the ground they were standing on started to crack, and a streak of lightning emerged from directly beneath Zack. "Aaagh! " Zack screamed in pain as the lightning hit him, and in his pain, he accidentally dropped Cloud onto the ground. The ground beneath them split into two, and Cloud fell into the ground below.

"Cloud!" Zack screamed, attempting to reach for Cloud, but he was out of reach. The strange creatures emerged next to Cloud's fallen body, including one of the giants.

The sea of darkness was closing in on Zack, and it's proximity was weakening him, making it hard for him to move. He sees the creatures closing in on Cloud. In one last desperate move, he pools most of his remaining energy into the Buster Blade, and in one mighty swing, threw it at the largest of the group of creatures approaching Cloud. His throw was true, and as the sword sunk into creatures chest, the large amount of energy that was stored in the blade was released in a large wave, and the creatures approaching Cloud disappeared. The sword, no longer stuck in the giant's chest, fell and buried itself in the ground next to Cloud.

Seeing that his friend was safe for now, Zack fell on his back onto the ground, satisfied. He saw the darkness approaching him, and as it drew closer, he felt more of his strength being sapped away. His vision began to darken, his consciousness was leaving him. He stared at the approaching dark mass. And then all he saw was darkness.

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**A/N - I wrote this months ago for a fellow author for him to use as a prologue for a story the two of us had been discussing, but he had decided to let me write and publish the story instead.**

**I hope you enjoy and please feel free to point out any mistakes in your reviews.**

**I will probably make this into a full story, but for now this will just be a oneshot. This will be rewritten and used as a prologue.**

**Yes, the FF7 Characters will be from the Planet, not Radiant Garden. And yes, I have considered the consequences of having some particular characters in the KH Multiverse. And I already have a plot planned out.**


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